Obama Pits America’s Makers Against Its Takers

The Obama Record: GOP White House contenders think the president is taking the country down the path to "European socialism." They're wrong. It could be something much more radical.

Eight years ago, virtually out of nowhere, Barack Obama burst onto the national political scene. Few knew this young politician from Chicago, who was trained as a community organizer and civil-rights lawyer.

Fewer still knew of his carefully calculated plans for using the democratic process to gain power and bring about "social change" on a large scale.

But gain it he did. And now — after his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and his 2008 presidential triumph — we've had a chance to see how that "change" looks. Obama has unleashed a juggernaut of legislation and regulations on industry that rival the New Deal in scope.

From the moment he stepped into office, Obama has used his power to redistribute capital and bring corporate America under state control. Among other things, he has:

Forced all large banks, including healthy ones, to take federal bailout money while forcing them to pass stress tests before they can get out from under state control.

Forced banks to renegotiate private mortgage contracts to forgive principal payments for customers while ordering the banks to liberalize their lending practices and even open branches in blighted and unprofitable areas outside their service area.

Signed sweeping regulations that give the state new authority to control the entire financial sector — from banks to hedge funds to insurance companies to even car dealers.

(The Dodd-Frank Act gives Obama unprecedented powers to monitor and redirect the capital flow of all financial firms, as well as adjust their capital requirements and even shut them down and restructure them.)

Renegotiated the terms of Detroit creditor contracts so autoworkers get preferential treatment at the expense of shareholders while preserving the high union cost structure that bankrupted GM and Chrysler.

("I owe those unions," Obama has said. "When their leaders call, I do my best to call them back right away. I got into politics to fight for these folks.")

Centralized control of the health care industry through 2,730 pages of new mandates that bring insurance companies and drugmakers under the supervision of the state and force the wealthy to subsidize the uninsured at a starting cost of $1.6 trillion.

Transferred an additional $1 trillion in private taxpayer wealth to welfare programs and public works projects, which have increased dependency on the state to record levels.

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